SPA Modeler

Hawker Tempest Mk.V
SN 129 / SA-M
486 Squadron
Piloted by Sqdn Ldr CJ Sheddan, DFC
April 1945

Cornelius James Sheddan was born in Waimate, New Zealand, on March 3, 1918. He was a farmer before he joined the Royal New Zealand Air Force on April 13, 1941.

Posted to the United Kingdom on completion of basic training, he joined 485 Squadron. He flew Typhoons, a design greatly troubled by engine and structural failures.

James, however, responded to the Typhoon's challenge and volunteered to join an operational squadron. His CO, who realized the young pilot's potential, supported his application and in mid-1943, James was on his way. After this shaky start James rose from the rank of Sergeant pilot to Squadron Leader with 486 Squadron.

He survived 19 hours in a dinghy off the French coast, crash landing a Tempest after a battle with a V-1 Flying Bomb, then made the advance across northern France in the final weeks of the war. James Sheddan left the RNZAF on April 13, 1945.

His war record lists four victories in aerial combat, with three shared, and seven V-1 Flying Bombs.

(Sources: Hawker Tempest Records Page and “Tempest Pilot” by CJ Sheddan and Norman Franks)

First out of the blocks! I'll be watching - I've always liked the look of the Tempest. I'm not familiar with Pacific Coast Models - and living on the Pacific Coast you think I would be

John! Thank you so much! The sprue gates are so darn big I am gonna need a saw. It was Clint here who turned me into an acolyte of PCM. Styrene and resin by Sword, PE by Eduard, decals by Cartograph, in a short-run kit. No locator pins or tabs, and finicky with fit. I should use the British expression “fiddly.” To die for plastic; just a touch harder then Hadegawa, which I think is the perfect composition. This project was fact checked by a Tempest expert and decals, colors and factory overview were supervised by “Barracuda Roy” of Barracuda Resin and Decals, also in California.

I do like seeing a PCM kit being built. What does the resin look like?

Lovely resin. I will post photos of everything in the box this week. I also ordered a book by Valiant Wings about the Tempest as well.

Here’s the largest piece with my messages to my buddy about a jig saw:

That's what band saws are for!

Indeed! I know Matt owns one. Maybe I should ask? I was going to try using my Zona razor saw.

I’ve heard of PCM, but that’s about it. Watching!

I have the ICM Mk V variant in 32 which is almost a limited run itself. I think Im going to have a go with it sometime soon.

LyleW wrote:I’ve heard of PCM, but that’s about it. Watching!

PCM was run by a husband and wife in Northern California. I feel they were fabulously wealthy and talented to conceive and produce WWII kits in 1/32. Perhaps another backer was involved. I really do not know. Their website is off-line. I was planning to email them, actually, because the kit has two complete sets of wings, which I think was done as a fix for the first versions of the kit. Everything about this kit is high quality. The engraving of panel lines is a little thick at this scale, but I will take sprue shots later.

Paul wrote:I have the ICM Mk V variant in 32 which is almost a limited run itself. I think Im going to have a go with it sometime soon.

I am not familiar with that kit. Is ICM Special Hobby?